BetterLife Pharma Inc (CSE:BETR, OTCQB:BETRF) announced that it has engaged Bloom Burton Securities Inc for strategic advisory services to support its growth and development initiatives toward clinical trials.
“We are very excited to be working with Bloom Burton, Canada’s leading healthcare investment banking firm,” BetterLife CEO Ahmad Doroudian said in a statement.
“Bloom Burton has extensive understanding of the overall biotechnology and healthcare landscape and the emerging psychedelics space specifically, which will help advance our clinical trial initiatives and accomplish our financing needs.”
READ: BetterLife Pharma closes private placement with help from Negev Capital to fuel clinical programs
The company also highlighted its 2022 accomplishments with an end-of-year review.
For instance, BetterLife scaled up manufacturing (kilogram batch size) of its proprietary form of 2-bromo-LSD (BETR-001) using its proprietary synthetic pathway. The starting material and whole synthetic pathway do not involve any controlled substance and, therefore, are not bound by controlled substance regulations.
A comprehensive preclinical in-vitro and in-vivo characterization of BETR-001 was conducted, including an in vitro pharmacological profiling of BETR-001 over 30 key neuroreceptors in parallel with its parent compound LSD, as well as in-vivo studies in mouse models, showing the non-hallucinogenic profile of BETR-001 as well as its effective structural neuroplasticity and anti-depressant profile.
At the end of 2022, the manuscript on the BETR-001 preclinical data was submitted to a high-impact peer-reviewed scientific journal for publication and is currently awaiting review outcome, the company said.
BetterLife Pharma is primarily focused on developing and commercializing two compounds, BETR-001 and BETR-002, to treat neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. BETR-002, which is in preclinical and IND-enabling studies, is based on honokiol and the company’s pending method of use and formulations patent covers the treatment of anxiety-related disorders, including benzodiazepine dependency.
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